Report of the Secretary 




FORESTRY AND ARIO LAND INTERESTS 




RiiPKiN'iKi) HV I'liE Author 
From a publication of tlu' State (jf Oreiioii in 1S08 



Qf^ 



-^fr'dCLe-.Jdfco^j^ 



A PAPER 



FoRBSTKY Interests 



OF OREGON 



JOHN XIINTO 



A REHRINT HY XHE AUTHOR 




SAI.EM, OREGON': 
KOSS K MOORKS & CO., PRI.NTKRS 

1 i) I) 9 



r>\ 



O'l'''" 



D. OF 0. 

PPB 14 -910 



FORESTRY INTERESTS. 



?Ir. President and ?Ieinhers of the Board: 

Since responding to j'our request in April last to write out 
my views on the subject of Forestry, I have, as you author- 
ized, become a member of the American Forestry Associa- 
tion, and from its publications and others from the division of 
forestry of the United States department of agriculture, and 
from Hon. Binger Hermann, Commissioner of the General 
Land Office, I have secured valuable information on the 
present status of the national forest policy, in which the 
American Forestr5' Association seems to be an impelling 
and guiding influence. 

The American Forestrj' Association is a voluntary body. 
Its membership roll contains six hundred and ninety names, 
sixty-eight being females; and three hundred and seventj'- 
one — a clean majority — are residents of New York, Massa- 
chusetts, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and the District of 
Columbia, fifty claiming residence in Washington Citj'. It 
is, I believe, reasonable to suppose that the large majority 
of the members of this body are educated people — idealists 
on the subject of forestry. It is not deemed iinreasonable to 
assume that the fifty members located in Washington are 
(in addition to being well informed) either in the employ of 
the National Government, or wishing to be so. The organ- 
ization is so constituted that a few active members can shape 
the course of the association and become a powerful influ- 
ence in framing the policy of the g-overnment relative to the 
disposal of forest lands. Take B. K. Fernow's position as 
illustration; He is chairman of its executive committee — 
three being a quorum; a member of its directors, four being 
a quorum. [And fifteen is a quorum of the association.] He 
is also chief of the division of forestry, which gives him a 
great personal influence. By the report of its executive com- 
inittee, read by Mr. Fernow, February .5, 1897, we are informed 
that it secured the appointment of a committee of the 
National Academy of Sciences "by inducitig the then 
Secretary of the Interior (Hon. Hoke Smith) to ask the ad- 
vice of that learned body" as to the proper steps to be 
taken with reference to the public timber lands; that an ap- 
propriation of $2o,000 was readily secured to pay its expenses; 
that "it was not expected its recommendations would be 



esseutiullj- or atrikitiirlj- (lifferent I'ruiti those niarlo unci 
advocated bj- the ussociation;" that it was hoped ''the 
weight of the opinion of the eminent men of the committee, 
so secured, and the body from which the committee was 
selected — being- tlie legally constituted advisor of the govern- 
ment in matters scientific — would do much to arouse more 
general public interest and to secure the passage of desired 
legislation." In the same report the committee mentions 
that "it passed and directed to congress and the executive, 
resolutions protesting against the modification of the Cas- 
cade range forest reserve, which modification the people of 
Oregon had petitioned for." 

The report of the executive committee of the American 
Forestry .Association was read at its meeting on February 
."ith. That ot the committee whose appointment it secured 
from tile .Vcatlemy of Sciences, by tfie help of one or more 
competent clerks of the general land ofiBce detailed by Sec- 
retary Francis to assist in its preparation, had been "com- 
pleted and submitted about February lat." It recommended 
tliirleen additional forest reserves, of an aggregate area of 
'.il,:{7'.»,8-H) acres. The recommendation was adopted and pro- 
claimed on Fetiruary 22, 1897, Hithuut reference to the 
rejjresentutiren of the states njost directly interested or 
tfie conditions of their udniission as political communi- 
ties, in plain contravention oi some important provisions. 
The report is introduced by alluding to experiments now 
under process by Gustave Wex, an eminent engineer hav- 
ing charge of improvements on the river Danube, giving 
gauges recorded as to tlie high and low water marks of ten 
rivers having their sources in central Europe. As the ex- 
aminations are incomplete, they are inconclusive as to cen- 
tral Europe, and constitute simply an introduction to the 
report, which seems to avoid scientific demonstration, to 
deal in assumption of facts and aspersions of industries in 
Oregon which cannot be truthfully applied to tfie natural 
conditions existing in this state, nor to the actions of its 
citizens. 

Happilj-, the report shows such a lack of statesmanship 
that it caused a halt in the movement of the policy which 
thus seems to have been initiated by the Forestry Associa- 
tion, the general objects of which are certainly worthy and 
very important where timber is needed. The wording of the 
report of the committee to the Academy of Sciences is such, 
as to assertions made and language used, as to create the 
suspicion that the committee trusted too much to the clerk 
or clerks the secretary of tlie interior phicetl to their assist- 



ance. Assertions of fact are iiiatle and expressions used 
relative to sheep and sheep husbandry that may be passed 
over as emanating from an appointee of President Cleveland. 
It is not possible to believe such assertions and expressions 
to be the composition of any member of a bodj' selected from 
the American Academy of Sciences, and the letter of Pro- 
fessor Sargent, in appendix it of the report, is so superior 
as to make it almost certain the members "signed a report 
none of them would have written." The tenure of the report 
is so abusive of sheep and sheep owners as to create the con- 
viction that it is the product of personal animosity, as it is 
but a refined echo of the western cowboy's abuse of sheep 
and sheep owners — his successful contestants for grass in 
the range country. The effect of this part of the report will 
be to increase and encourage animosities which have caused 
the outrages against law and justice tliat have been com- 
mitted against flock owners and their tlocks in every range 
state. It is not intended to claim that sheep men are not 
sometimes aggressors in these troubles: they are not angels. 
The use of the word "nomadic," as defining this mode of 
sheep-keeping, is calculated to give a false conception of 
the pursuit. The owners are not "nomads," nor are their 
tlocks, indeed. The former have their settled homes in the 
dry pastoral regions of the range states — are themselves the 
equals of other men engaged in developing their localities, 
both in public spirit and private enterprise. This fact can 
be proved by looking at the devlopment of a country much 
more closely resembling that claimed to have been ex- 
amined by the committee than does that of central Europe — 
Australasia. But Australia, and the lessons to be derived 
from Australia's enterprise, in the conservation of scant 
water suppU', its records of rainfall, its experiences of the 
encroachment of "pine scrub" upon sheep and cattle ranges, 
the greater success of the former on driest ranges as com- 
pared with the latter, has received no notice from this intel- 
ligent committee. Whj'? It would seem as though the work 
was already cut out for this respectable committee — as a 
stalking horse to the forestry association; and it came very 
near telling by whom, when it follows John Muirand B. K. 
Fernow in holding up to the secretary of the interior, and 
through him to the president of the United States, the ex- 
amples of the imperial governments of Germany, Russia 
and British rule in India in regard to forestry; as though 
the citizenship of the United States were on the same level 
as the laboring populations of those countries, and there 



6 

were no ay:r«'ment between the states and the nation in the 
way of its recommendations. 

The committee commends tlie use of tlie army to guard 
these reserves, now aggregatinji^ nearly fort}- inillion acres, 
needed, as it claims, for the preservatii)n of the water supply 
in the dry interior; and as a means of making- money where 
the best timber is and water is not needed, as in the Olympic 
rangein Washing-ton. It recommends the exclusion of sheep 
from pasturage within these reservations, as destroyers of 
the forest and desolators of the plains. The herders are 
singled out as incendiaries of forests. The major reasons 
for its recommendations are that forests protect the sources 
of streams in mountain and highland districts, by preserv- 
ing- the snow from melting and impeding the percolation of 
melted snow or rain from reaching the valleys below. My 
observation teaches me that mountains and highlands are 
the attracting- causes of precipitation, and trees and brush- 
wood are effecta of this precipitation; that all other things 
being equal, snow melts first in belts of timber or brush, 
partly because the frees and brush break \:p the snow wlien 
falling- and partly because of the influence of color on solar 
rays, dark objects absorbing, white, reflecting heat. The 
bulletin (No. ;iS) of the experiment station of the Universit}- 
of Missouri is now sending out the result of color on peach 
trees, showing that the simple act of wliitewashing this 
sensitive tree delaj'ed the swelling of the buds twenty-two 
days later than the unwhitened. This accords with my 
observations on the Cascade rang©, where it is rare to find a 
patch of snow within the timber after the middle of July, 
and not then near the trees or brush. Later than that snow 
is on'open ground; generally where it has tjeen laid by drift- 
ing. These snow banks on open land, and water from 
springs in valleys below, are the sources of rivers after the 
middle of July. 

Congress, in passing tVie sundry civil expense bill, June 
i, 1897, provided for the survey of the forest reserves, and 
empowered the president to revoke, modify or suspend all 
such executive orders or proclamations, or any part thereof, 
from time to time, as he shall deem Ijest for the public in- 
terests; and suspended the proclamation of Februarj- 22, 
1897, as to reserves in Wyoming, Utah, Montana, Washing- 
ton, Idaho and South Dakota, till March 1, 1898. This action 
has had the result of causing the departments of the interior 
and of agriciiltiire to sent out special agents to collect in- 
formation on the interests involved. Mr. F. V. Coville, 
botanist of the department of agriculture, visited this olTice 



/ 

with a letter of iutroducliori from Hon. Hinger Hermann, 
asking such aid as I could give him as a special agent of 
the department of agriculture, sent to Oregon with a view of 
studying and reporting upon the subject of sheep grazing 
within the forest reserves. I gave him all the aid 1 could 
.and a general letter of introduction to such stockmen as he 
should meet on his proposed route northward from Klamath 
Kails on the summit and eastern slope of the Cascade range. 

In a letter from Washington, acknowledging my letter 
was a service to him, he expresses the belief that he had 
gathered facts which would solve the grazing question. 

A letter from Kdwin F. Smith, statistical agent of the de- 
partment of agriculture, asking the number of sheep and 
value of grazing on the Cascade range and foot-hills, was 
received by Hon. H. E. Dosch, of the first district, who 
turned it over to me for answer. Based on the nnmtjer of 
sheep assessed in Wasco, Sherman, Crook, Lake and Klamath 
counties in 18!Xi, and estimating the number of lambs not 
assessed, I count the total 707,(567 liead, the wool yield of 
which I estimate at l.&i^.liliO pounds, worth in the home 
market $19.^.366.90, all of which I credit to summer grazing, 
leaving the mutton and lambs to the credit of winter care; 
but I think the benefit of the sheep being taking off the 
plains in summer is worth fully as much to other stock in- 
terests — horses and cattle — and to the wintering of sheep, so 
that the total value would be in round number $1.(X)0,000 an- 
uallj'. Only one-third of these sheep as yet go within the 
l)ounds of the reserves as laid, but the number is increasing 
as the flock-owners increase and improve their provisions 
for the winter keep. There is little or no lumber taken from 
the reservations. The provision for winter feed is the en- 
grossing summer work of the east Oregon flock-owner, and 
his success in that is the measure of his success in his pur- 
suit. In this he has the advantage of the range cattle owner, 
as he has his flocks always under control, which is well nigh 
impossiljle with catlle or horses. Cattle, horses and fat 
sheep are generally shipped to markets east of the Rockies 
by rail, but sheep designed for sale as breeders for the ranges 
of Wyoming or the Dakotas, or feeders for the corn lands of 
Xebraska, Kansas, or adjoining states, are driven on foot, 
perferably on the highest lands on the route taken — both 
food and water and avoidance of local interests being con- 
sidered. The Forestry committee, alftiding to these in- 
terests, says: 

"Great flocks are wintered in the sheltered canyons of 
Snake river, and then, spreading through eastern Oregon, 



8 

have destroyed the herbage of tlie valleys and threatened 
the forests on its mountain ranges. Sheep raised in eastern 
Oregon anil Washington are driven every summer across 
Idaho and Wyoming to markets in Nebraska and Dakota, 
eating bare as they go and carrying ruin in their path. In 
every western state and territory nomadic sheep men are 
dreaded and despised. Year after year, however, they con- 
tinue their depredations. The actual loss this industry in- 
flicts on the country annually, in thousands of acres of 
burnt timber anil in ruined pasture lands, is undoubtedly 
large, although insignificant in comparison with its effects 
on the future of mountain forests, the flow of streams and 
the agricultural possibilities of their valleys." 

This extract contains the chief points of the committee's 
conclusions. This business of marketing sheep from west 
of the Kockies is in the hands of middle-men, who pay for 
any accommodations tliey receive from residents of the 
country they cross. The picture of destruction is wholly 
imaginary, both as to the'threatening of the forests and the 
ruin of pastures. I here insert an extract from a letter re- 
ceived from Commissioner Dosch, who has recently visited 
the Snake river canyons. He says: 

"As you know, I have just returned from a trip to Montana 
and incidentally paid a visit to friends in Utah, Idaho, and 
Oregon, along the Snake river, examining many commercial 
and private orchards all under irrigation. I luive come to 
the conclusion, not with standing the fearful heat, for it ranged 
from IOH° to 111° in the shade to i:i:5° in the sun in the 
orchards, agriculture and horticulture is much more satis- 
factory where one controls the water than to depend on the 
heavens for it, coming, iis it does, at unseasonable times, 
which is not the case in irrigated districts. I have not seen 
finer kept orchards, nor more thrifty growing trees, nor 
laden with finer, larger peaches, pears, prunes and apples, 
than those very orchards along Snake river, which were but 
a few years ago barren wastes covered with sage brush and 
jackrabbits. The grain fields are simplj' immense, and as to 
alfalfa for hay it ia beyond belief three to four cuttings per 
year, averaging seven tons for the year. If our southern 
Oregon friends would take lessons from these Snake river 
people, they would simply have a paradise." 

In a more recent letter Mr. Dosch tells me of one firm near 
Ontario who had 2!bOO tons of alfalfa hay, who had just given 
an order for 'i,!*)*) calves to be purchased in the Willamette 
valley at $8.2.1 per head. Any reasonable business man 
knows that this transmountain trade in cattle and sheep is 



9 

one of advantage to breeder, middleman and feed-seller; and 
so far as the sheep are concerned they are not "hoofed 
locusts" but the g^olden hoofed bearers of the golden fleece, 
eating a greater variety of the bitter weeds of the hot plain, 
and by their owners carrying gold to the owners of hay in 
the Snake river and other canyons, when their welfare de- 
mands such purchase. They do not eat coniferous trees at 
anj' stage of growth, and they lessen the danger of forest 
fires where they feed. This is the statement of unprejudiced 
men, from central California, to northern British Columbia 
on the Pacific coast. In the consular reports from Australia, 
which tell of sheep being destroyed in fires of dry grass and 
timber combined, there is not a single charge made against 
sheep keepers as incendiaries. 

Among those who have been here this past summer to 
estimate the reasons for the people of Oregon desiring the 
reduction of the Cascade forest reserve, wa.s Mr. B. E. Fernow, 
to whom allusions have been made. If his remarks relative 
to the Cascade reserve were correctlj- reported in the Ore- 
gonian of September 9th, it ought not to be hard to convince 
him the people of Oregon are right in their desire for its re. 
duction. They, like the people of many other states, are 
very willing to have some of the most interesting mount- 
ains included in reserve parks. He ascended the bases of 
Mt. Hood and Mt. Jetferson and made an estimate of the re- 
serves as a timber resource. To reach the latter mountain 
he passed through a community of a larger number of 
citizens than constitutes the American Forestry Association, 
whose families are supported by lumbering interests inside 
the reservation. He is reported as saying: "There is not 
much, although some, good marketable material on the 
Cascade and Bull Run reserves, but the larger part of the 
great reserve, I am inclined to think, comprises Alpine 
forest of hemlock and firs, which does not furnish material 
at present marketable, or else is burnt up. Although the 
reserved area appears large, its useful contents are but scanty. 
You may safely halve the area as far as serviceable timber 
is concerned." This is a remarkably good estimate of the 
eastern half of it, but Mr. F. was deceived as to the west half 
by seeing only the high ridge, whereon the timberis always 
thin and inferior from natural causes— foremost of which is 
lack of moisture at its roots; next, the injurious influence of 
the wind. 

Mr. F. proceeds: "I have not heard a single good reason 
against the reserve. The reasons usually can be sifted 
down to some small speculative interest, that is supposedly 



10 

sacrificed to the ifreater coiiimnn;il interest. The poor man 
who has taken up a homestead in tlie woods — not to make 
a home, but to speculate with the timber on the 160 acres — 
feels injured because his speculation may not pan out; tlie 
sheep herder feels injured l)ecause he loses the free ranjj;^e to 
which he had hardly an3- riolit before, and which he did his 
best to destroy liy his reckless manner of using- it; a third 
class is formed by those who consider the reservation policy 
one imposed ujjon western communities l)y eastern cranks, 
iynorant of western conditions. Tliese are to be pitied for 
their lack of perception that this is one countr3- with one in- 
terest, knowinjj no east and no west." In this, Mr. Fernow 
charii^es bad faith and low motives to the "poor man;" self- 
ish, reckless incendiarism against the sheep herder, and 
narrow, sectional jealousy against those who oppose the 
reserve policy. This is "one countrj-," but there are sup- 
posed to be alxjut seventy millions of personal interests 
covered by its constitution. There are some forty com- 
munity interests legally formed, which should not be 
lightly infringed. The citizenship of the fourteen states and 
territories which have large amounts of public lands within 
their bounds, and of which they have heretofore been 
deemed the local guardians under the terms of their ad- 
mission to the union, preserves a full average share of pride 
in tlie fact that this is a government "of the people, by the 
people, and for the people," which secures to the poorest citi- 
zen the ownership of himself, and ma)' be said to invite him, 
by the homestead la w, to the ownershipof a home. As one of 
these, the writer claims the right to be heard in regard to 
this reserve policy, as it bears upon the interests and seems 
to threaten the liberties of citizens of Oregon, for reasons 
believed to be erroneously based. 

With due respect for the members of the Forestry Associa- 
tion and the committee it secured to aid its objects, so far as 
these are to cultivate a public spirit to foster silvia culture 
where it is needed and to disseminate information to that 
end, I yet must (from more than fifty years acquaintance 
with conditions in Oregon, half of which has been such as 
to make me familiar with the natural phenomena of the 
Cascade mountains and the effect of man's usage upon 
them) dissent almost .in toto from the assumptions of the 
committee and the derogatory charges made against sheep, 
their herders or their owners. I owe to the nation to stand 
for the truth on this subject in all its phases, general as to 
forests and conservation of water supply, and particular as 
to sheep husbandry and its influence upon the growth of 



11 

conifers (the only forest trees of the Cascade range and in- 
terior inountains involved in this policy, except a little 
Cottonwood and aspen.) 

For two years prior to March 15, 189S, I was in the employ 
of the United States department of agriculture, to examine 
and report upon the condittons of sheep husbandry in the 
states of California, Orej^on and Wnshinoton. The con- 
densed report is published in tlie special report on the sheep 
industry' of the United States, bureau of industry, 1892. Ten 
letters of California sheep growers are therein quoted, all 
protesting against the charges of setting out forest fires by 
sheep herders. They are samples of scores of letters of the 
same tenure, from which I gathered that, unless fires were 
started designedly by the basque herdsmen ( who were really 
nomadic in their methods and had largely superseded the 
Americans in southern California) the cliarge was untrue 
against the sheep industry in that state. It never had a 
particle of truth in it as to the state of Oregon, so far as I 
know, nor in Washington. In British Columbia, the most 
recent government reports contain thirty-seven answers, 
giving causes of forest fires. Not one mentions the sheep 
industry as being the cause, yet there, as in western Wash- 
ington and Oregon, the clearing of thinly set timber lands 
for homes, in which sheep can be utilized to some extent, is 
increasing as population increases. 

Mr. Fernow is quoted as saying that the smoke he found 
an annoyance in Oregon will deter tourists from visiting 
this state. Well, Oregon as a community ha-s not yet come 
down to the show business. The smoke is not the evidence 
of forest fires by incendiaries. It is in the main evidence of 
burnt offerings to nature's God by the home builders of 
western Oregon and Washington, who believe that: 

"To make a happy fireside clime 

For weans and wife, 
Is the true patlios, and sublime, 

Of human life." 

Sometimes fires get beyond the control of homebuilders, 
thougli not often. Carelessness of summer vacationists, 
hunters, berry-pickers, travelers through unsettledmountain 
timber districts, and road makers, is the most common cause 
of forest fires. The Hon. D. P. Thompson, who has had 
great experience in the timber lands of Oregon as a sur- 
veyor, believes he has knowledge of two instances where 
fires occurred spontaneously, probably by the rays of sun- 
light shining through clear turpentine exudations. This 



12 

maj' account for some fires on the east slopes of the Cascade 
range where the yellow pine exudes turpentine very freely. 
But it must not be forjiotten that the Warm Springs Indian 
reserve is bounded on the west by the summit, and the 
Indians have the rights of hunting and grazing their ponies 
on the entire range, to which many of thein resort everj' 
season, when (by custom from wliich they see no reason to 
desist) they renew the old l^erry patches and coarse grasses 
of the dry lake Ijeds by fires. 

I would estimate seventy-five per cent, of the smoke ob- 
scuring the views of tlie September visitor in Oregon or 
Washington as the result of land-clearing for homes. The 
employment bj' the state of five or six active young men 
from the first of July to tlie last of October of eacli year 
would soon stop four-fifths of the firea resulting from care- 
lessness west of the suinmit of the Cascade range. They are 
very rare now on the east side, and though ten years ago 
they were more fre(|uent, they never were destructive of 
valuable timber, because the grasses, even when dried into 
hay, were always light within the timber belts. Pasturage 
of stock is a protection there, as fifty year's experience has 
proved that summer grazing prevents dry grass fires in 
western Oregon and Washington. If it were desirable to 
conserve the forest growth it could be done by selling the 
land, or leasing it, on defined conditions, as is done in the 
Australian colonies, where men of weigfit and influence are 
not in the habit of making war upon the most important in- 
dustry pos8il)le in a country closely resemliling these range 
states; wherein there are yet (although grants, reservations 
and private ownerships cover nearly all the watercourses) 
exclusive of Texas, o3-t,0(H),(KK) acres of public lands, of which 
Oregon has 3o,S92,818 acres. Give the people of those dr^' 
plains the wise liberal inducements and security in their 
investments which have lieen made for sheep, cattle or horse 
breeding in Australia; and in addition to sheep husljandry 
already established, 40(),()()0,0(l() acres of those dry pasture 
lands will become a field of production wfiich will feed the 
looms of the nation, without the necessity of importing a 
pound of wool, and in addition will supply lamb and mut- 
ton to the people. 

Senator Warren, of Wyoming, in a paper in The Illustrated 
American, estimates the numbers of livestock now feeding 
in the arid land states,and ranging chiefly on tfie public lands, 
as follows: Cattle, 14,000,0(10; sheep, 24,0<Xi,OOO; horses, 2,(100,00(1, 
mules, 50,000. Under our existing land system, the contest for 
range privileges to which no man hns an e.xclusive right 



leads to rivalry and strife which not infrequentlj' culminate 
in lawlessness and bloodslied. Give leases to applicants on 
nominal terms, or sell, under conditions, at very lo\v rates, 
securing to those making permanent improvements in either 
case the appraised value of such improvements, whether on 
the plains, parched and dry, or on the grassy highlands, 
which are a haven of comfort for man and beast in the sum- 
mer months. From all the range countr3' at elevations pro- 
ducing the pine trees, timber and water will he carried to 
and conserved on the plains, and timber preserved on the 
mountains by local energies, guided and impelled bj' per- 
sonal and local interests. Double the number of cattle, 
sheep and horses will be kept, and belter kept than now; and 
lands now deemed not worth the purchase will furnish 
homes for thousands and tens of thousands of happy people 
— lands on which yet the wood growth is sage brush and 
the pennanent live stock, jack-rabbits. The lease and con- 
ditional sale system in use in Australasia induced the 
change from loose herding to the Paddock system of keep- 
ing stock, and one-third more stock is better kept, and at less 
cost, it is claimed, on the same area of land than under the 
former method. What Australianscan do, Americans can do. 

In the national report on sheep, to which I have referred, 
will be found a letter of J. Parker Whitney, another kind of 
Boston man, who sent his brother to Australia in 18,")5 and 
bought 3M such sheep, at $.'i(1.0() per head. He succeeded in 
getting 120 of them to California, which he subsequently 
estimated as paj'ing him $1,0(K),000. They induced him to 
buy 20,000 acres of the then cheap land in Placer county, 
California, which he was selling in small parcels in 1892 at 
$1.")0 to $3'.)0 per acre, for peach orchards. This was near 
Rocklin, from which district he was the first man to send a 
train load of peaches east of the Rockies, and where I saw 
tlie Central Pacific railroad company, and private parties 
clearing lands of the pine and other scrub which had grown 
up on closely grazed lands within the past twenty-five years, 
just as it has done in Western Oregon. 

The estimated area of forest land in Oregon has been con- 
sidered at about l(j,0(X),0(X) acres in the entire state. Dr. J. R. 
Cardwell, Commissioner at large of the State Board of Hort- 
iculture, considering the economical values of the conifer- 
ous growth of coinmercial value, estimated it at 16,000 square 
miles, or 10,000,0(iO acres, in 1893. This estimate Mr. A. W. 
Haininond, of Wiiner, Oregon, vice-president of the Amer- 
ican Forestrj' Association, adopted in his report to that 
body in 18tKJ. He puts "the merchantable timber on the 



14 

latter nrea at 100,000,000,000 feet, board measure." I learned 
from the Oregonian, tluit Mr. Hammoiitl, was the first to 
publish these estimates. He says: "The annual out-put is 
now estimated at about 200,000,000 feet; but even this amount 
must be insijrnificant in comparison with the amount an- 
nually decayinu- and in a sense "oing- to waste in the forests 
throujjh natural causes. Fn many places, even about the 
settlements, one will see numbers of the ver3' largest and 
handsomest pine trees — in ever)' respect maonificent speci- 
inens— 200 to 2.')0 years old and more, dead and dying, that 
inust go to waste because of the entire absence of means of 
converting them into lumber. 

"The annual out-put, in fact, represents an amount equal 
to about 10 per cent, only of the annua! growth. Whence it 
follows (if the forest remains stationary) that an amount 
equal to 90 per cent, of this new growth is annuallj' going 
to waste. This means, in other words, that if the mature 
timber could be culled anually from the forests of this state, 
they could be made to yield annually about 2,000,000,000 feet, 
board measurement, without detriment." 

I quote a little farther from Mr. Hammond to show how 
impractical a good man can be. He says: "In the opinion 
of the writer, what is most needed here just now is, first, 
some efficient regulation in regard to forest fires; second, 
proper measures to prevent the gobbling up of large tracts 
of the most valuable portions of forests by private corpora- 
tions where lumbering operations are liable to be carried on 
without reference to future needs or to future conditions of 
the country. The general sentiment here is yet far from be- 
ing sufficienti)' alive on this important subject. So many 
interests would like to share in the general prosperity that 
that would follow the working on any adequate scale of the 
great forests of this state, that public sentiment, it is only 
too well feared, would be in sympathy with any movement 
of that kind, and the future needs or the future condition of 
the country would receive no attention except at the hands 
of a few." 

How restful the mental condition of a man must be who 
can contemplate 1 ,800,(WO,onO feet of lumber wasting annually 
for lack of users, yet let the waste (which is one hundred 
fold more than annual destruction by forest fires) go on for 
fear of over-cutting in a country like this. The writer greatly 
prefers to meet present human interests, and is very glad to 
believe the people of Oregon are of the same mind in very 
large majority. They are proving this by the very great 



15 

increase in the lumber cut since Mr. Haiiniiond wrote down 
his estimates and his fears. 

The enterprise of the managers of the Oretfonian lias given 
us the lumber cut of 1897. Believini>- they will be interest- 
ing reading to ideal foresters and friends of forestry for its 
u-es to humanity, I insert two papers relative to the subject 
from the Daily Oregonian of January 1, 1S<)S: 

LUMBER CUT. 

•■The saw mills of Oregon cut o49,823,179 feet of lumber last 
year. Bj' counties the cut was: 

Baker $ ;M),0(X1.IX»I 

Benton .._ 1.1iki,i»ki 

Clackamas 4,iKKi,iK»i 

Clatsop LN.HIKI.IHKI 

Columbia 1>*,17(;,IIIX) 

Coos .' '.'•.'.(XO.IKHI 

Crook 1,5()0,IKK) 

Curry ^0(J,(XHI 

Douglas 35,000,00(1 

Gilliam _' 1,I100.0(» 

Grant , - - 400,000 

Harney 2,000,0(K1 

Jackson •27,5()0,(XW 

Josephine 15,IX«i,00<i 

Klamath r.VmMHXi 

Lake. _. WJ0,0(»1 

Lane 1.5,(XH),(ii«i 

Lincoln — — ■.',(X1II,(KKI 

Linn ai,OOII,(IO<i 

Malheur 5f)0,(KKI 

Marion- - 2,455,000 

Morrow 830,000 

Multnomah 130,000,000 

Polk 7,415,879 

Sherman 

Tillamook - — 22,000,000 

Umatilla-— 1U0,U(H) 

Union 24„->0O,0O0 

Wallowa »2fi,000 

Wasco 2,.500,000 

Washington '- 12,000,000 

Yamhill fiOO,(K)U 

"The mills of Multnomah county cut 1.30,0(10,000 feet, valued 
at $1,040,01X1, an average of J8 per thousand. Tfie same aver- 
age applied to other counties, brings the value of the cut in 
the state to $4,398,, 585. 43. 

"Oregon's timber svtpply is practically inexhaustible. The 
great belt, comprising the counties of Clatsop, Columbia, 
Washington and Tillamook, contains, as is set forth in an- 
other part of this paper, approximately o(i,0(K),000,000 feet of 
standing timber. Last year the lumber cut in the four 



l(i 

counties jnst naiiierl was about 811,170,(111(1 feet. At that rate 
it will take nearly 7(HI j'ears to exhaust the standing timber 
in the belt. 

"Multnomah county cuts more lumber than any other 
country on the Pacific coast. Portland cuts more lumber 
than any other city on the Pacific coast. She leads the Pac- 
ific nortlnvest in lumber as she leads it in every other com- 
modity. As Portland is situated close to the world's great- 
est timber belt, there is no likelihood that she ever will lose 
her position as the greatest lutnber-manufacturing city on 
the Pacific coast Development of the great belt, which 
must take place within the next ten years, will make Port- 
land the greatest lumber-manufacturing city in the world." 

THE WORLD'S GREATEST TIMBER BELT. 
I ( )reg<mian, January, 1, 1898. | 

The greatest timber belt in the world is in the counties 
of Clatsop, Washington, Columbia and Tillamook, in North- 
wertern Oregon. In the four counties there are l,.SS4,!ll>0 
acres, containing .")f),l-t9,'20U,0(10 feet of timber. The standing 
timber is worth on the average .50 cents per 10(10 feet, Imard 
measure, or !f28,07-t,{)OI). Manufactured into rough lumlnr. it 
is worth, at the rate of $7 per 1000, the enormous sum of 
$:»3,0 17,400. 

Clatsop county has about .530,000 acres of timber land, 
averaging :r>,(l(KI feet per acre, making a total of 18„V)0,(1(10,(100 
feet. 

Tillamook county has about 7oO,(Kl(l acres, which will aver- 
age .3,>,(KH1 feet to the acre, making a total of '.'i..^: 10,000.01 XI feet. 

Washington county has about 2i)4,900 acres, which will 
average 20,000 feet to the acre, making a total of .5,2il'.»,000,iHlo 
feet. 

Columbia countj' has about :3tH;i,000 acres, which will aver- 
age 20,0(K> feet to the acre, making a total of 7,80(1,000,0011 feet. 

The foregoing totals of 1,S84.0H(1 acres of timl)er land and 
,5(i,140,aiO,0(IO feet of standing timber are conservative. The 
majoritj' of people who figure on Oregon's available timber 
supply base their calculations on an average of 40,000 feet 
per acre. The average value of 50 cents per 1,01X1 feet for 
standing timber is reasonable. Present prices of stumpage 
in the t)regon timber belt is from ,50 cents to $1 per 1,000. 
Government forestry experts have placed the average for 
Oregon at (52 cents per 1,000 feet. 

The principal rivers in the timber belt are the Nelialem, 
the Wilson, and the Trask. Along the Nehalem are 57(I,M()0 
acres, averaging 40,000 feet, making a total of 22,812,000,000 



17 

feet. Along the Wilson are 111,040 acres averaging 35,000 
feet, making a total of 3,907,4(IO,(X)0 feet. Along the Trask are 
102,400 acres, averaging 40,(X)0 feet, making a total of 3,.')84,(X)0,- 
01)0 feet. 

The tiinber in the belt consists of fir, cedar, hemlock, spruce 
and larch. The fir is the genuine yellow or Douglas fir. It 
constitutes 8 per cent, of the entire growth. Timber in the 
belt is less subject to fire than timber in any section in Ore- 
gon. This is because the lands slope toward the ocean, and 
the heavy fogs which prevail in the summer keep the leaves 
and underbrush so damp that fires cannot take hold. 

Michigan and Wisconsin lumbermen of large capital own 
immense bodies of timber land in the belt. 

This showing of forest wealth in the five counties in the 
northwest corner of the state of Oregon will be agreeable 
reading for her citizens, and a study of the question of 
natural supply of the entire state will lead to endorsement 
of the words of the Oregonian that it is "practically inex- 
haustible" if our fellow citizens of the American Forestry 
Association can be persuaded to refrain from such methods 
of procuring legislation affecting their fellow citizens on 
this side of the continent — the conditions of whom they can- 
not understand sufficiently to justify their meddling, by 
open action or secret intrigue, obstructive of the most 
economical mode of harvesting this great source of natural 
wealth. Information derived from the assessor of Clatsop 
county enables me to confirm the statement of the Orego- 
nian, that "Michigan and Wisconsin lumber firms of large 
capital own immense bodies of timber in this belt. But 
these companies are not operating the large and costly 
harvesting agencies in their own timber. Why? Because the 
Wilson bill gave the lumber market of the world to Canada, 
and the wool market of the world to Australia, and these 
men of Michigan and Wisconsin were compelled either to 
let their machinery rust in idleness or set it up near the line 
of the Canadian railway, and it has been employed there dur- 
ing the past four years, while the waste of decay has been 
going on in the woods of Oregon. On the other hand, the 
development of Oregon's portion of the great inland empire 
has been obstructed by the policy alluded to and the insid- 
ious methods of the American Forestry Association, as I 
have shown. 

The Oregoiiiau's tables show the lumljer cut of the five 
northwestern counties of the state to be 210,17f>.00() feet; that 
of the five grazin" counties of Crook, Grant, Harney, Lake, 



• 18 

and Mallieur, 5,300,000 feet. The nation has >j"iven about 
2,100,0IK) acres of the public lands to induce the construction 
of so-called military roads into these counties. Thirtj-seven 
years ag^o families of the pioneer class of citizen ^\vhose 
early settlement of Oreij^on and Washington gave the nation 
its most important title of occupancy to half of the then 
Oregon territory) began to settle within the boundary of 
these five counties, making investments in full faith that 
the liberal policy which had caused the construction of 
these roads would be continued, and tfie country be devel- 
oped. There they liavelived. Their familieshave increased, 
but many of the younger generation, on coming to maturitj-, 
have left the isolation of the pastoral life behind them, and 
have left many remaining wfio would follow their example 
if they could lind purchasers for their properties. They 
have endured the hardships that attend the occupation of 
raising cattle, horses, and sheep in that region, and tlie 
dangers inseparable from the contiguity of the native race. 
There is no longer necessity for the military roads by which 
to give succor there against Indian uprisings. The pro- 
jected Oregon Central and Eastern Railway (the construc- 
tion of which began on a financial basis furnished by two 
milit.uy road grants) is impeded by the Cascade forest re- 
serve. This road, if completed to the east line of the state, 
would answer more than all the purposes of the military 
roads for national uses; as troops hereatter will be collected 
in these range states of tlie interior and lirought to the 
Pacific shores, where the emergencies demanding military 
power are most likely to arise. Meanwhile the most import- 
ant aid to an increase of homes in the central part of the state 
of Oregon.and eastward and southward of that region, is a rail- 
road through that country .so that lumber for homes and fenc- 
ing material, and for irrigation projects, can be distributed 
with greatest economy. In the valley and pass by which 
this line of railroad is now more than half way across the 
Cascade range there are more than one hundred resident 
homesteaders who were located within the limits of the for- 
est reserve before it was proclaimed. Many of them were 
stopped in their efforts for improvement and development 
of their homes by the prospect of an unetidurabfe isolation, 
the proclamation in effect destro3ing all hope of the social 
surroundings which are the best influences of civilization. 
To open that reservation, two townships wide, to free acquire- 
ment of the land, under any reasonable ct)nditions as to 
harvesting of the timber, would be the best possible encour- 
agement to those interested in this-railroad enterprise which 



li) 

flii.s forest policy has so far stopped. It would encouraj^e 
tile completion of the road, the manufacture of lumber 
through a fine timber belt eighty miles wide, and give 
healthful home-supporting opportunity to at least five thou- 
sand heads of families; furnish lumber freights, lioth east- 
ward and westward, to the railroad line, and develop the 
numerous interests in connection with this comparatively 
small opening, for which many people have been waiting for 
more than twenty-five years. 

If the writer were desirous of suggesting the very best 
means within his knowledge of lessening tlic dangers of the 
m >st extensive and destructive fires p )ssibh' in the Cascade 
timber t)elt, this is the recommendation we would make: 
Clear a gap across the range in the cpjickest and most ju- 
dicious way possible. The committee on forestry recorded 
one undoubted truth: "N'o human agency can stop a west- 
tern (Oregon) forest fire after it has once obtained real head- 
way, until it encounters a natural barrier, is extincjuished 
t)y rain, or expires for lack of material." The opening of this 
gap is suggested as means of creating an artificial break in 
the consumable material, and an interested resident popu- 
lation of guards, n-hicli cuii l>o made subjects of legal cu/l 
for aid as one cori<litiou of C(Jiiret'aiicc of forest lauds 
from tlic nation or the state. 

Another reason for the foregoing suggestion is the value 
of the water power now running unused. For fifty-one 
miles the North Santiarn river, running down this valley. 
has an average and very uniform fall of fifty-one and 
one-half feet per mile. It is questionable whether there is 
another stream in the state which could be so often and so 
cheaply used in the production of force. The very refuse of 
its forest wealth could be ground into paper pulp by water- 
driven inachinery. The writer is no machinist, and knows 
little of what can now be done with electric force, but sin- 
cerely l)elieves tfiat in this valley there are great opportu- 
nities for its cheap manufacture and a convenient field for its 
use in harvesting the timber growth which ought to l)e here 
saved from further waste, and as a guard against possible 
destructive forest fires. There is also, near the head of this 
valle)-, a very inviting field for fruit growing, dairy farming 
and apiaries. Twenty 3ears ago it was estimated tfiere was 
room for the settlement of 2,0011 families on open or partially 
open lands, upon which seedling timber has since much en- 
croached. 

In view of this great waste going- on in the forests of Ore- 
gon generally; in view of the situations described as to for- 



20 

est and arid lands near the center of tlie State, is there anj' 
reason for the people of other states to interfere with the 
people of Oregon harvesting their timber wealth in their 
own way, under such circumstances? All! but these East- 
ern friends say; "We look to the future and the oneness of 
our country." The Western citizens will say: "Yes, but the 
oneness will be best maintained by each expending his 
public spirit where he knows the condition." Let the citizens 
of New York continue to enlarge the state's holdings on the 
Adirondacks. l^et those in Massachusetts use the aban- 
doned farms in that state for public timber lots. Let those 
of New Hampshire follow the example of Mr. Austin Corbin, 
who has shown to the world a tield of interesting study by 
collecting l.Wl elk, 150 moose, l,2tX) deer, and 85 buffalo, and 
an indefinite numl>er of wild swine, all in a forest park of 
2(i,<IO(' acres, to form which he canceled 375 titles, by pur- 
chase at from :fl to !f25 per acre, from people who. we may 
suppose, find life more pleasant in manufactures or trade of 
town or city, or in the pulse-stirring home-building of the 
West, to which they are always welcome. In every state 
there are openings for the public spirited idealist, or if he 
does not wish to share fiis plans with others, there is the 
fine example of the founder of Biltniore— an investment in 
lOlt.OOO acres of southern pine forests, to be managed for its 
forestry products. There are openings for others in like 
enterprises in the New England states. 

EFKECTS OF FOKEST Gt'JOWTII Oi\ WATER SUPPLY. 

It is not possible for men and women who never saw the 
effect of irrigation to estimate its value under such condi- 
tions as Mr. Doscfi describes in tlie canyons of Snake river, 
and Dr. Kernow bears witness to having seen on the deserts 
of Arizona (during his examinations of the forests of that 
territory, recently published by the American Forestry As- 
sociation.) 

Dr. Kernow notes that "The broad valley of the Rio Verde, 
which carries the drainage from the plateau of Salt river, is 
capable of agricultural development to a much greater ex- 
tent than has been attempted, but, as in other parts of the 
territory, this requires systematic storage and utilization of 
water. By careful management, the cattle, sheep and goat 
industry would, no doubt, be able to use advantageously the 
large non-irrigable areas." This suggestion can be truth- 
fully applied to the whole arid land country from the Mexi- 
can line to British America, and from the summit of the 
Cascade range in Oregon, to Western Kansas and Nebraska. 



21 

The present flocks and herds, said to number 24,0()f),(XX) of 
slieep and l.'iOO.UK) cattle, in the arid land area could be 
greatly augmented, and an amount of additional value 
gathered from what is now desert that can hardly be con- 
ceived of. It is greatly to be hoped that the departments of 
Grovernment will take measures to aid its present develop- 
ment, instead of creating and guarding solitudes. It is 
more than twelve years now, since the writer suggested the 
use of means to get artisian water onto these arid lands. 

t)n similar areas the governments of Australia are in ad- 
vance of ours, both in the reservation of forests and pro- 
visions for and conservation of water supply. In New South 
Wales alone, the number of reserves aggregates 15,050, dis- 
tril)uted over every county and almost every parish in the 
province, in order to meet the needs of the people, ranging 
from 15 acres to 74,(XK) acres in area. Some of thein are along 
the banks of rivers, extending two chains from the bank, 
apparently as protection from the flood, wood and debris 
carried by the streams when in extraordinarj- flood, as some- 
times occurs there as in some portions of arid America. 
They are under a local board of control, which tends to cul- 
tivate a public spirit — though sometimes so numerous as to 
create confusion. The report mentions thirty miles on one 
river as being in charge of no less than fourteen boards. 
There is no hint in the consular reports of the practical 
Australians creating permanent reserves of millions of acres 
of timl)er as protection to the flow of streams. The whole 
system aeeitis to be managed for immediate practical devel- 
opment, such as is greatl}' needed throughout our arid land 
districts, in which there are now settlers who have to use 
sagebrush for fuel. From the report of Consul Cameron, of 
Sydney, New South Wales, the following is taken: "It is 
worthj' of note, the influence of trees is comparatively 'nil' 
in this countrj'. During the exceptionally wet year of 1887, 
on Dinb}' station, north of Baradine, 408 miles north of 
Sydney, situated in a densely timbered countrj', the mean 
rainfall was 32.60 inches against .38.92 at the neighboring- 
station in the open. On the other hand, in the verj* dry 3'ear 
of 1888, Dinby figured for 11.73 inches with 15.oS inches at the 
above stations. Elevation, however, seems to have a beneficial 
influence on rainfall, as the average of fovirteen years at 
Wollongong, half a mile from the sea, at a height of sixty- 
seven feet is 38.84 inches, and at Cordeanx, near the same 
place, six miles from the sea, it is 55.53 inches for seventeen 
years at an eleTation of about 1,200 feet. " The foregoing ex- 
tract is given for what it may be worth as indicating whether it 



is the presence of tlie timber which influence precipitation, 
or elevation, merely, which has a favorable effect in increas- 
ing rainfall. There are other points in Consul Cameron's 
excellent report that I shall call attention to, namely, the 
amount of moisture taken up by evaporation by different 
soils and situations, but more particularly the difference be- 
tween sod-covered soil and bare earth and water surface. 
The test was made by Mr. H. C. Russell, B. A. C. M. G. F. R. 
S., the government astronomer for New South Wales. Tfie 
tests were secured by the use of pans eight incVies deep, and 
surfaces of foursquare feet and the records made wlien prac- 
ticable through the twelve months of the wettest season 
recorded, which showed a mean temperature of (ill", the 
total rainfall was 81.418 inches in one hundred and eighty 
four days of the year, on many of which evaporation did not 
take place, the water running over tfie test pans. The total 
evaporation from the square in grasses was :ii.9()0 inches; 
from the water surface 31.027 inches; from the garden soil, 
which, thoiigh sandy, hardened when dry, it was 2."i.47(> 
inches, showing, by a difference of nearly ten and a half 
inches, that either the inherent heat of the live grass, the 
increase of exposed surface by the grass blades, or the 
sponge-like absorption of the bare earth, made this differ- 
ence. It is probable all three agencies were operative, but 
there is a difference between the grass and the water surfaces. 
The grass giving off -l.fK-iS inches more than watL-r. This in- 
dicates an effect of absorption of heat by the broken surfaie 
and color of the grass, and perhaps a reflection of heat from 
the surface of the water, an effect I claim as one reason whj- 
a solid snowbank will lie longer in the open air uiimelted 
than in thick timber or brush near by, an effect that every 
one familiar with the mountains can often see. Other in- 
fluences are present, namely it is warmer in dense timber in 
the winter season than in the open and while it is (*ooler in 
the timl>er during the daylight in summer when the sun is 
shinning, it is warmer within a timber belt on a sumnu-r 
night than in the open. This is proven by the fact that cold 
given off from the bodies of snow during tfie night in the 
sumtner months often causes water to freeze in the open, 
when it does not do so in the nearby timber. There is an- 
other and very important fact indicated by the difference of 
ten and a half inches of water evaporation between the grass 
covered and the bare soil, during the days of one year on 
which evaporation took place. If tfie great evaporation was 
caused by the life qnd color of the grass and the increased 
surface its l>lades offered to the sun's rays we may reason- 



23 

ably expect the greatly increased surface of a growing forest 
will throw off a greater amount of moisture bj- evaporation 
than will a grass surface. The question whether this is so 
or not is most respectfullj' referred to the eminent body of 
scientists to which the forestry committee belongs, and to 
the national experiment stations generally. The writer be- 
lieves science will find that trees not only extract water from 
a greater depth of earth than does grass, but also give off 
during the growing season inuch more. The evaporation, 
we see by this table, was nearly thirtj'-six inches of 81.418 
tliat fell. Could experiment be brought to the solution of 
the question, the prediction is ventured that it will prove 
that trees not only draw much more water from the soil than 
grass but that, drawing it from a greater depth of cooler 
earth, they scatter a greater coolness from their leaves, and 
thus produce the grateful shade and pine-scented breath of 
the forests we all delight in. 

Leaving this subject for the present, I quote again from 
the consul's report immediatel5' following the tables I have 
summarized. He says; "In addition to iny previous remarks 
descriptive of the soil characteristics, it sliould be borne in 
mind that every tleece of wool that is produced takes a per- 
centage of potash and other fertile matter out of the soil, 
and that hitherto nothing has been done to replace these 
elements. As a consequence, valuable herbage gradually 
gives out and is replaced by an inferior output. For instance, 
pine scrub hus seized on thousnrifls of acres in the interior 
of n-hat H-as formerly magnificent pastoral land." The 
italics are mine. I don't believe Mr. Cameron has got the 
truecause. though it may be so in some thin soils in Australia. 
Pine scrub and that of yellow fir (Doua;las spruce) takes the 
land in eastern and western Oregon wh;re a fleece of wool 
or a pound of flesh never was extracted from the soil \ty do- 
mestic animals. 

The consular report from which I have just quoted con- 
tains much that may be useful to the industries of eastern 
Oregon, which is the western edge of vast natural pasture 
lands of the range states, and of which Oregon yet has nearly 
thirty millions of acres east of the Cascade range, which, as 
yet, are neitfier reserved nor sold. For the certain develop- 
ment of these lands to the highest possible use, both timber 
and water conservation are necessary under conditions which 
seem so nearl}- similar to those in New South Wales as to 
make the examples they set us in their methods of great 
value, as guides towards improving our own present 
methods. The report shows ttiat the natural condition of 



24 

each district lias been closelj' studied as to tlie kind of stock 
it will best support. Heavy or light horses, heavy or lijifht 
cattle, cattle for the dairy, or cattle-breedino; for beef — the 
districts better adapted to sheep than any of the larg^er stock, 
— these eminently practical people haveconsulted the g-eaius 
of each locality and devoted the land to the purpose for 
which nature best fits it. It also shows that not only private 
enterprise, but public money is actively at work developinjj- 
the best nieans of (jetting water onto the arid areas of that 
land, once thought impossible dl use to civilization, as was 
the Great American desert of fifty years ago. In doing this 
the example set l)y private enterprise in California in sink- 
ing artesian wells, is not only encouraged by public recog- 
nition, but the government engages in the same business 
when private capital and enterprise are insufficient, doing- 
such work as was suggested bj' the writer in a letter to Gov- 
ernor Moody and by him forwarded to Senator J. N. Dolph, 
and hy him submitted to the appropriate committee of the 
United States senate. The committee included in an appro- 
priation bill a liberal item to test the artesian well system in 
Colorado and in Oregon, which was defeated. 1 think l)y 
nonconcurrence of the house of congress. 

The need of water on the vast bodj' of the public domain 
yet in the arid land states requires that means should be 
taken to appro.\imatelj' measure the amount of water which 
does not flow off by the river system, nor is yet accounted for 
by the ascertained evaporation. In this, common observa- 
tion teaches that people of eastern Oregon are verj' greatly 
interested, because, on account of the character of the sur- 
face formation, the precipitation falling east of the summit 
ridge of the Cascade range seems in larger measure to pass 
into the ground where it falls — and not on that range and 
interior mountains merely, but over the great plain of the 
Columbia basin. The disappearance of snow from the sur- 
face, under the influence of the (Chinook), wind from the 
Pacific ocean, leaving the ground dry in a few minutes, 
seems to the observer magical — turning in a few hours of 
time the extensive arid lands of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, 
and western Montana from a snow covered contlition dis- 
tressful for the stock owner to contemplate, into immediately 
usable pasture lands, yet showing little effect on the great 
river of the west — the Columbia — the floods of which occur 
usually in June. 

Where does this precipitation lodge; and is it recoverable 
for uses in agriculture and horticulture? are <juestions of 
more pressing importance to the people of Oregon at present 



tliiin the openitii^ of the iinnecessaril}- hir<ie Cascade forest 
reserve, on the eastern portion of which, pasturai^e beinj^' 
permitted, the livestock interest can have the benefit until a 
permanent forest policy (should one be needed) can be 
adopted, which will minister to the j^^eneral welfare. I ha\"e 
endeavored to show that the privilege of grazing; the east 
side of the Cascade range and foothills is of the annual 
value of ifl.OOO.Om. The entire value of the sheep and wool 
interest of the state is shown in the Ore^oiiiun of January I, 
1SSI8. to be as follows:— 

Sheep, 2,167,341 head at $2.25. $ 4,876,2!I2 25 

Wool, 15,706,3.5fi pounds, at 10 cents l,570,liSj 60 

Total for slieep and wool $ 6,446,927 85 

Nearly, or quite, four-fifths of the. value is in the 1,867,.')42 
sheep kept in the fourteen counties of Kastern Oreg'on, 
where, as I have said precipitation sinks below the surface 
in a manner our eastern friends, who pass resolutions to 
keep the use of our forest lands from us, cannot possibly 
understand. Could these gentlemen become imbued with 
the knowledge Dr. Fernow gained by his visit to Arizona 
last fall, and perceive as he did the wonderful effects of 
water on the arid lands, which by the use of irrigation water 
will become fields of production — gardens like that of Kden 
— in which to grow "everj' tree that is pleasant to the sight 
and good for food," tliey would cease to injure us. To re- 
alize Mr. Fernow's conception there is much more necessity 
for the expenditure of public monej', to indicate to the 
people how to secure tVie water precipitated during the year, 
for use in the growing season, than there is for a forestry 
policy, albeit the experiment station of Utah, by acting on 
Dr. Fernow's proposition for setting apart certain lands for 
testing the timber trees, suggested by him in order to find 
what is best, is taking hold of the forestry question in a 
practical manner. The experiment station's efforts to find 
how much irrigation water is required for the production of 
a given crop is very commendable, as teaching how to make 
the desert blossom with the rose, in the very midst of the 
vast area, we now begin to see of value that cannot yet be 
estimated; but which I believe will be increased, not dimin- 
ished, by the use of sheep in pasturing all the timbered 
highlands interior to the Cascade range, as well as on its 
eastern slopes. 

To close this paper, I will summarize the position I believe 
the closest possible scientific tests will demonstrate as true. 



26 

Pirat. — Neither in tlie valleys nor on the nionntains of 
Oregon are either sheep or cattle an injury to the growth of 
coniferous trees. 

Second.— While the density of the forest growth which 
Oregon people deem commercial timber makes sheep keep- 
ing in it impossible, the grazing of the summit ridges and 
eastern slopes is beneficial and protective. 

Third. — Snow melts first on those mountains within the 
timber, or on brush lands, to which I add, both timber and 
brush lands consume more water than they give out {none 
of which is given out in any other way than from the leaves. > 
Trees lift the moisture from the earth while growing; the 
common observation of all who have worked in maple-sugar 
camps teaches that there is a principle of life in a tree that 
causes the sap to run when the grass plants are under snow. 
Still, snow lying from winter till after the middle of July is 
incompatible with the growth of timber of value. The sur- 
face sources of streams are from snow in the open after that 
date. To this I will add that tro plant known to me dispenses 
water from its roots — all are drinkers; and when the question 
becomes so important as it is now becoming — how to make 
homes of abundance on the yet unpurchased arid lands, it is 
V)etter to find out, if it be findable by science, whether we 
have not all been following "a general concensus of opinion" 
which science will not sustain, by l>elieving that shade will 
increase the flow of a mountain stream as we were taught 
by the charming Ayrshire plowman, when he made the 
stream say; — 

"Last day I grat wil' spite and teen 

When Poet Burns cam by 
That to a bard 1 should l)e seen 

With half my channel drj."' 

The conception of the poet was that the trees I)y their 
shade would prevent evaporation of more moisture than 
there roots wouUl take up. The forestry committee reasons 
on that basis, but my observation compels me to conclude 
that the Shepherd King of Israel was truer to nature than 
Burns, and will be found trurer to science when he said of a 
good man; "He shall be like a tree planted by rivers of water 
that bringelh forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall 
not wither" * * * — Psalms 1;S. 

APHE.XDl.K. 

In order to bring before the mind of interested readers the 
ratio of evaporation, table No. IV of bulletin .iO of the Utah 



experiment station is inserted as sliowint 
tained by two European scientists: 



the reaulta ob- 



TABLE NO. IV. 



Made by Hellriegel 



Ratio of walsr 

eiaporaleil to 

weight of crop 

bariesled 



Horse beans — 

Peas 

Barles' 

Clover 

Spring wheat 
Buckwheat -- 

Lupine 

Spring rye 

Oats 



Made by WolJnj- 



.Maize 

Millet 

Peas 

Sunflower-- 
Buckwheat 

Oats -. 

Barley 

Mustard 

Kape 




Accordino; to Hellriegel, 330 tons of water would be ab- 
sorbed bj' the roots of clover, drawn up through the stems 
and evaporated from the breathing pores of the leaves for 
each ton of clover harvested. If the jield be estimated at 
three tons per acre, the quantity of water per acre is 990 tons, 
or a volume sufficient to cover the surface to a depth of 8-11 
feet, or nearly nine inches. 

Hellreigel's results as to clover tends to explain wh5' alfalfa, 
one of the strongest growing of the clover family, is "always 
dry," not unusually receiving sufficient over the surface 
during the growing season in Utah to cover the ground six 
feet. Should alfalfa be found to drink water by the roots in 
the same proportion as above claimed for clover the seven 
tons per year given as the yield in the Snake River Canj'on 
leads to the astonishing result of Li, 311) tons of water per acre 
annually consumed, or about 27 inches, which is yet so far 
short of the six feet mentioned bj' Mr. Samuel Fortier, com- 
piler of Bulletin .I'l, on the "water supply of Cache vallej', 
Utah." 

The difference suggests such an immense waste of water 
where that may be so truly called "the water of life " as to 
call for a wide range of experiment, both as to the require- 
ment of plants and economical methods of furnishing- what 
is necessary. 

In connection with Mr. Dosh's brief description of orchards 
and farms of Snake river canyon, the cultivator ought to know 
as near as possible how much water he needs for each acre 
of apples, pears, peaches, prunes or other fruit crop; how 
much for his several field crops. These questions will not 



n 



28 

onl}' arij^L' in limited localities, as between those who are 
drawing from the same ditch, but will arise between districts 
as to what proportion of a river, like the Snake river, shall 
be dtrawn out on the north side, at the American falls for 
instance, and what amount will be required or can be used 
on the south aide. So, in such a situation as the Deschutes 
near Farewell Viend, the whole flow of the river mis'ht be 
taken on to the desert, but on the west side the Taniilowa 
and Benton, or Squaw creek, can be used over much of that 
area, while the whole of the stream could be taken out on 
the east side and carried across Crooked river to fertilise a 
fine body of dry plain on the north side of that stream. 

There certainly seems a wide field for intelligent enter- 
prise. 

J()HN MtNTO, 
Secretary State Board of Horticulture. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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